In The News | BankFWD

GreenFin Conference 2023

June 26, 2023

Put your money where your mouth is by banking green(er) Banking on Your Values When we deposit our money with a bank, those banks use our dollars to finance loans to other companies and collect interest. Where our banks lend our money matters and has consequences for personal and for companies’ carbon footprints. 24% of the dollars lent out using our deposits by the U.S.’ six biggest banks go to funding carbon-intensive sectors like fossil fuels and companies like Exxon Mobile. How many emissions does your bank facilitate with your money? How many emissions can you avoid by moving your

AGM Season & the Reemergence of Common Bank & Climate Myths

April 12, 2023

Debunking JPMorgan Chase’s Misleading Claims from its 2023 Letter to Shareholders JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s annual letter to shareholders ahead of its annual general meeting is a masterclass in myths about what banks can and should do to reduce climate change and secure their bottom lines. 1. There’s a trade-off between climate action and the bottom line Continued financing for new sources of fossil fuels is necessary for global energy security Banks cannot act meaningfully to combat climate change until they are required to by the government

BankFWD at COP27

November 8, 2022

Money in the Bank: The Central Role of Corporate Finance & Baking for Meeting Climate Goals Corporate cash is not climate neutral. Every company has a financial supply chain that generates emissions that companies must work to decarbonize. Where companies invest and where they bank generates emissions through the financial system and can produce more emissions than their direct operations or their other supply chains, undercutting progress to reach companies’ own climate and other net-zero goals. This panel, held at COP27 in the Business Pavilion was moderated by Stephan Nicoleau, Partner and Managing Director, FullCycle and a Board Member of

Wall Street Banks Weaken the Top Climate Authority for Banks

November 7, 2022

QUARTZ by Tim McDonnell Banks Can’t Stomach Genuine Climate Targets A Much-Lauded Climate Alliance for Financial Institutions Launched a Year Ago is Already Falling Apart At last year’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, one number grabbed a lot of headlines: $130 trillion, the sum total of assets managed by global financial institutions that had committed to reach net zero emissions across some or all of their portfolio by 2050. The group that organized those commitments, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), was led by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney. It looked like one of the big

Wall Street Banks Weaken the Top Climate Authority for Banks

October 17, 2022

JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Other Big Banks Weaken the World’s Top Climate Authority for Banks with Cascading Consequences for Clients The Net-Zero Banking Alliance’s decision to overrule science-informed membership requirements allows banks to continue benefiting from the reputational advantages of their net-zero commitments without accountability for ending the fossil fuel policies that undermine them. October 17th, 2022 The Net-Zero Banking Alliance announcement that it will not adopt strengthened accountability standards to require banks to phase out fossil fuel-financing undermines global efforts to put the world on a 1.5˚C-compatible pathway and the capacity of banks’ clients to achieve

Corporations’ Assets Have Huge Carbon Footprints

August 30, 2022

What About Foundations? Michael Kavate – Inside Philanthropy Published July 12, 2022 https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2022/7/12/corporations-assets-have-a-huge-carbon-footprint-what-about-foundations Microsoft, Apple and other companies have invested millions to electrify their operations and otherwise cut their emissions. Yet all those efforts may be outweighed by the carbon footprints of the money they have in the bank, according to a report released in May. Take Meta, the parent company of Facebook. The emissions financed by its $48 billion in cash and investments exceed all of its other emissions combined, accounting for 112% of those generated by the creation, transportation and use of all Meta products, according to “The

BankFWD on ABC News Live Discussing the EPA

August 30, 2022

Climate activists are infuriated after the Supreme Court's latest ruling limiting the EPA's authority to set clean air and climate standards for the private industry. pic.twitter.com/W9pjEf8UKC — ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) July 1, 2022

BankFWD EPA Statement

June 30, 2022

BankFWD Responds to the Supreme Court’s Ruling on EPA vs West Virginia The EPA’s Clean Power Plan would have given the financial sector a powerful lever to hold the fossil fuel and energy companies in their portfolios accountable for meeting critical energy transition milestones. Tweet June 30, 2022 The Supreme Court’s decision to severely limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to set clean air and climate standards for private industry – particularly the fossil fuel sector – goes against the best interests of this nation and its people. At a moment of maximum urgency for aligning public and private interests

BankFWD Statement on First Republic

December 9, 2021

11-30-2021 — On November 29th, First Republic Bank became the first large US bank to announce a commitment to ending all lending to fossil fuel companies, the only one of the US’ 25 largest banks to do so. This commitment marks a watershed moment for large banks’ climate action and establishes the important precedent that fossil fuels can and must be phased out of banks’ lending – and all – financing activities. BankFWD applauds this commitment as an essential step towards ending all financing (lending, investing and underwriting) for fossil fuel expansion and phasing out all existing fossil fuel financing

First Republic Is First Large US Bank to Stop Fossil Fuel Lending

December 7, 2021

On November 29th, First Republic Bank became the first large US bank to announce a commitment to ending all lending to fossil fuel companies, the only one of the US’ 25 largest banks to do so. This commitment marks a watershed moment for large banks’ climate action and establishes the important precedent that fossil fuels can and must be phased out of banks’ lending – and all – financing activities.